Bartender Training, Seminars, Books and More

Need training but can’t leave home? Then BarSmarts Wired may be for you. Pernod Ricard USA and Beverage Alcohol Resource are reopening a 100 percent online version of BarSmarts, the comprehensive bartender training, education and certification program.

This is one of two times BarSmarts Wired will be held in 2010. It is open twice a year in two-month intervals, offering any bartender an opportunity to participate and become certified through a password-protected web-based platform. Interested candidates are asked to register at www.barsmarts.com where they can download content, complete assignments, take exams and gain certification. The online program covers topics including Spirits Knowledge & Tasting, Industry History, Cocktail Knowledge & Technique, Bartending for Career Advancement, and Service & Profit. The cost to participants is $45 and includes a BarSmarts messenger bag and complete set of professional bar tools.

Lucas Bols USA, producer of Bols Genever, hired Emily Stanley as its Boston Area Brand Ambassador. Stanley is steeped in the bar industry, having mastered her skills at Bukowski Tavern in Cambridge, Deep Ellum and Green Street.

Washington D.C.’s Derek Brown will host cocktail seminars every other Wednesday at The Passenger for evening cocktail seminars. First up on Feb. 17: A Primer on Orange Liqueur. On Feb. 24, Brown tackles Ice, How to Use. During this session students will learn the history of ice, how to handle it and how to use it to make great drinks. Cocktails include the Daiquiri, Old Fashioned, Rum Swizzle, Bombay Government Punch and Scotch on the “Rock.” E-mail [email protected] for more information and to register in advance.

Many bartenders are reporting paying $20 or more on the grey market for Angostura bitters after a shortage of the widely popular cocktail ingredient finally made an impact. Is it a manufacturing problem or a result of the parent company’s financial plight? No satisfactory answers forthcoming from Trinidad yet.

Tony Abou-Ganim’s book, The Modern Mixologist: Contemporary Classic Cocktails, will be out in late March. He and co-author Mary Faulkner have compiled his 60 best drink recipes and scores of useful tips about bar equipment and ingredients, as well as a brief history of the cocktail. Color photos by photographer Tim Turner.

Cuba Libre mini-chain has expanded to Washington, D.C. With more than 75 rums stocked and six of its own branded rums aged up to 21 years, Cuba Libre is a major promoter of Mojitos (15 varieties) made with guarapo (fresh sugar cane juice) pressed in-house.